posted by barkan at 11:58 AM
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Sunday, December 25, 2005
December 2005
Best wishes for the holidays to friends and family,
The last two years have been challenging, gratifying and most of all full. Family news first – Andrew finished his second year teaching at Collegiate School in Manhattan and moved this summer to Providence to share a house with his partner Polly Hall and four roommates. Polly, a fellow Amherst alum, is finishing her Masters degree at Brown this academic year. Andrew joined the staff of a non-profit educational company, The Big Picture Company, (check out their web site) which operates more that 20 non-traditional high schools throughout the country and is a technology guru for the video streaming and conferencing capabilities (I think, sorry Andrew). He is considering pursuing a graduate degree in music the next academic year.
Will assures us he will graduate in May from The George Washington University majoring in Political Science. He spent the summer in D.C. picking up credits he needed because of transferring after his freshman year and enduring the heat and humidity. We did get him home for a couple of weeks at the end of the summer where he especially appreciated the cool temperatures and low humidity while visiting the family cabin at Glen Alpine thanks to his Gilpin cousins. In addition to his academic work, he has also been working as an intern at a non-profit, the Sustainable Energy Institute, which is the first office job he has ever had. He continues to enjoy running and camping. He hopes to land a job after graduation with an outdoor education company in order to learn that business with the hope of starting up his own, eventually. Leads, readers?
Phoebe worked again this past summer at Enchanted Hills Camp, the Napa camp run by Lighthouse for the Blind. She is in her junior year at Skidmore College while avoiding actually being there. Her junior year abroad program includes the fall semester in Baja California in a program run by Field Studies Abroad which involves doing environmental research in Bahia Magdalena (endangered sea turtles) and her final project involved proposals for Ecotourism, particularly with sea kayaks, as an economic alternative to the local high pollution fish processing factory. She will spend the spring semester at the University of Auckland, taking English courses, and has promised us she will graduate a year from May.
Joan remains at Northern Trust Bank and had the privilege of attending “boot camp” in Chicago in October during the World Series, after which she visited Andrew and her mother on the east coast. She continues to play USTA league matches representing the Olympic Club with her long time partner and good friend Shaye Hester. She just participated in the Chinatown YMCA groundbreaking, which is terrific except for her losing her downtown workout facility.
John had a challenging academic year last year as the Discovery Center School imploded due to inept management, declining enrollment, and financial difficulties (!!) He stayed one year too long. The good news is, as a result, he began teaching this fall at St. Anselm School in Marin, a terrific K-8 school, where he instructs grades 6,7,&8 in math. He still doesn’t sail his boat enough.
In May we were saddened by the sudden and unexpected deaths of our brother-in-law John Fennelly, Joan’s sister Susan’s husband, and our dear friend Tom Rauh, Shaye’s husband. We miss them very much and their passing makes us realize how precious life is.
Cherish every moment, Joan, John, Andrew, Will, and Phoebe
P.S. Check out our website for photos: www.barkanfamily.net
Best wishes for the holidays to friends and family,
The last two years have been challenging, gratifying and most of all full. Family news first – Andrew finished his second year teaching at Collegiate School in Manhattan and moved this summer to Providence to share a house with his partner Polly Hall and four roommates. Polly, a fellow Amherst alum, is finishing her Masters degree at Brown this academic year. Andrew joined the staff of a non-profit educational company, The Big Picture Company, (check out their web site) which operates more that 20 non-traditional high schools throughout the country and is a technology guru for the video streaming and conferencing capabilities (I think, sorry Andrew). He is considering pursuing a graduate degree in music the next academic year.
Will assures us he will graduate in May from The George Washington University majoring in Political Science. He spent the summer in D.C. picking up credits he needed because of transferring after his freshman year and enduring the heat and humidity. We did get him home for a couple of weeks at the end of the summer where he especially appreciated the cool temperatures and low humidity while visiting the family cabin at Glen Alpine thanks to his Gilpin cousins. In addition to his academic work, he has also been working as an intern at a non-profit, the Sustainable Energy Institute, which is the first office job he has ever had. He continues to enjoy running and camping. He hopes to land a job after graduation with an outdoor education company in order to learn that business with the hope of starting up his own, eventually. Leads, readers?
Phoebe worked again this past summer at Enchanted Hills Camp, the Napa camp run by Lighthouse for the Blind. She is in her junior year at Skidmore College while avoiding actually being there. Her junior year abroad program includes the fall semester in Baja California in a program run by Field Studies Abroad which involves doing environmental research in Bahia Magdalena (endangered sea turtles) and her final project involved proposals for Ecotourism, particularly with sea kayaks, as an economic alternative to the local high pollution fish processing factory. She will spend the spring semester at the University of Auckland, taking English courses, and has promised us she will graduate a year from May.
Joan remains at Northern Trust Bank and had the privilege of attending “boot camp” in Chicago in October during the World Series, after which she visited Andrew and her mother on the east coast. She continues to play USTA league matches representing the Olympic Club with her long time partner and good friend Shaye Hester. She just participated in the Chinatown YMCA groundbreaking, which is terrific except for her losing her downtown workout facility.
John had a challenging academic year last year as the Discovery Center School imploded due to inept management, declining enrollment, and financial difficulties (!!) He stayed one year too long. The good news is, as a result, he began teaching this fall at St. Anselm School in Marin, a terrific K-8 school, where he instructs grades 6,7,&8 in math. He still doesn’t sail his boat enough.
In May we were saddened by the sudden and unexpected deaths of our brother-in-law John Fennelly, Joan’s sister Susan’s husband, and our dear friend Tom Rauh, Shaye’s husband. We miss them very much and their passing makes us realize how precious life is.
Cherish every moment, Joan, John, Andrew, Will, and Phoebe
P.S. Check out our website for photos: www.barkanfamily.net
posted by barkan at 11:29 AM
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It is Christmas morning and Andrew is showing us how to post blogs, which for old geezers like Joan and me is pretty ambitious. It has been fun having all three of our children home together and we had a festive Christmas eve dinner with Bill and Joan at the Burlingame Club. Check out our Christmas letter on the general website and I am now about to try to post photos... more to come later.
posted by barkan at 11:13 AM
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Thursday, December 22, 2005
On the roofdeck of our hotel at sunset overlooking St. Peter's & the skyline of Rome.
posted by barkan at 6:32 AM
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